The Stalker and the Fop
by Pickledishkiller
Summary: In Erik's lair, and faced with a choice which no one should ever have to make, Christine tells her two ardent admirers what she truly thinks of them. It only has this rating for language. RR, please!


Disclaimer: Me? Own the Phantom of the Opera? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! falls out of chair laughing Madness, sheer madness. I credit it all to ALW, Susan Kay, and Gaston Leroux. Geniuses they are. 

The Stalker and the Fop 

Christine stood there, in the knee-deep water looking at both men in utter shock. Choose one of them? Raoul or Erik. She could not stand there and declare which of them she loved. She could _not_ do any such thing!

Erik clutched the rope that encircled Raoul's neck with shaking hands and said, " You try my patience. Make your choice."

Christine looked from Erik to Raoul, looking both of them in the eyes. She looked at Raoul, and remembered his words, begging her to go free. He loved her so much that he would sacrifice his own life for her freedom. It moved her, deep down within her soul. She shifted her gaze to Erik's adoring, pleading, threatening eyes. He was always rejected always. Christine knew that. Nobody loved him. And he had loved no one. Except for Christine.

Christine knew what she had to do. She could not allow Erik to be rejected once more, and she could not allow Raoul to be killed for her sake.

She walked towards Erik, slowly placing his ring upon her finger.

"Pitiful creature of darkness," she choked out. Her voice grew stronger. "What kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you you are not alone!"

She looked into his eyes, and kissed him.

Erik was in shock. She could feel it. A part of her mind thought it slightly amusing that the man who had written the passionate (and rather morbid) lyrics of _Don Juan Triumphant_ would be so moved by her kiss. However, she leaned into him and kissed him again, freeing that poor lost soul from its dreadful prison. This was the only way she could save them both, even if it meant destroying her life. Somewhere inside of her, she enjoyed kissing Erik, because a part of her truly did care for Erik. He made her feel different, like she was special… And his music? Oh, how she could have gone through life without hearing his heaven-sent voice, his music, his passion, she did not know. But now his song would always be in her mind, never ceasing. Somehow, the thought gave her no pleasure.

They broke off at the same time, and Erik staggered, his mind made up.

"Take her and go… Take the boat… Swear to me never to tell the secret you know of the angel in hell! Go now! Go now and leave me!"

Erik almost yelled this out and Christine could tell that he was cutting his own heart into pieces. She pitied him, yes, but she felt relieved all the same. Sweeping to where he stood, she clasped his hand and whispered, "Goodbye, Erik" so quietly that only he could hear her.

Before he could say anything more, she turned and swept off, through the water, towards the shore where she knew a staircase back to the opera waited. She did not bother going to the boat, she couldn't even really fathom its purpose. After all, the water was only knee deep!

"Christine, I love you." Erik called after her. She stopped for a split second, and prepared to continue onwards before Raoul's voice interrupted her defiant march.

"Christine… I love you as well… And, well, I'm still tied up here. Think you could give me a hand? Then we can go free of this _monster_," he spat out the word. "And begin our life together."

Christine's jaw dropped, and she whiled on her heel, almost tripping on the hem of the extravagant dress and falling face-first into the water.

"WHAT?"

Erik was huddled in a corner holding a music box, but he seemed to turn around and look hopefully in Christine's direction. Raoul looked aghast and had a look on his face as though he was talking to a very young child.

"We can go get married. We will be free, and we can be happy." Instantly, Christine absorbed this all, she strode back onto the solid ground and stared hard at her two admirers before deciding to be painfully blunt with them.

"All right! I have dealt with this long enough! I have been kidnapped, harassed, spied upon, abandoned, and annoyed beyond all reason! You two seem to have an inability to comprehend that I do not love either one of you! Shocking, am I right? Well, it shouldn't be! I mean, look at you two! Raoul, assuming I'd marry you, and Erik. I mean, of all people, I know you have had a hard life, but you kidnapped me for heaven's sake! You lied to me, made me think you were the Angel of Music, just so that you could haul me off to your bloody bat cave and watch me sleep! I mean, I'm supposed to love Raoul, I mean that is the way the story was written. I am quite aware of that, but has _anybody_ considered MY feelings? Raoul, I mean, come on! You. Are. An. Incompetent. Dandy. Accept it, _please_! I mean, after the scene where you ran off to get your sword and left me to face the Red Death alone, I had lost utterly any faith I had in you! SERIOUSLY! And Erik, you aren't that ugly! I mean, you happen to have a bazillion phans out there who are completely obsessed with you! Oh, and speaking of obsessed, what the hell is up with the wax figure of me? Two words for you: _crazy stalker._ Why would I want to marry either one of you!"

She shrieked this out with the passion of a woman whose actions have been anticipated for too long; who has been acting like an innocent little girl for too long; who has been put to her wit's end too many times to stand it! She screamed with all the soul that was still in her, and when she was through with this speech, a ringing silence came through the lair, showing only shock and pain upon the faces of the two men. This annoyed her even more, for some reason, and as a parting shot to this whole mad house, she took Erik's ring into her palm, and threw it with all her might in their general direction.

The ring shot into the top of one of Erik's many lit candlesticks, knocking it over and into the organ. It lit a stack of music on fire, and proceeded to spread to the organ, and all that was near it, destroying the contents of the lair of the Phantom of the Opera.

Christine looked at the pair of very shocked and terrified faces and then looked at the burning organ.

"Oh, shit!" said she, and off she stomped through the water.


End file.
